RELEASED PAPUANS IN DIRE NEED OF EDUCATION AND MEDICAL FACILITIES by Fardah

 Jakarta, Nov 21, 2017 (Antara) - Sarce Rumaropen Beanal, 28, is hopeful that she and her son would have a better life while temporarily staying in Timika sub-district, Mimika District, Papua Province.

         She recalled the ordeals that her family and other fellow villagers had faced over the last several months, including during the hostage-taking incident that occurring for about three weeks in her kampong and several other neighboring villages.

         Beanal said her eight-year-old son Jeferson Beanal was unable to go to school for several months.

         "My son has stopped going to school since a landslide occurred in Utikini last August. Moreover, when the situation in our kampong becomes unsafe due to the shooting incidents, children never go to school again. Hence, we have decided to go to Timika," Beanal noted in Timika on Nov 20, 2017.

          The young mother and son are among 804 of residents of the villages of Banti and Kimbeli, Tembagapura Sub-district, Mimika District, who are currently taking refuge in Timika, because they were in dire need of education and medical facilities, as well as food.

         They joined the evacuation process, organized by the Indonesian security authorities on Nov 19, after they, along with hundreds of others, were released by the officers.

        Some 1,300 people, comprising of over 850 indigenous Papuans and 346 migrant workers, had been held hostages by an armed criminal group (KKB) in several villages in Tembagapura for about three weeks.

            The integrated military and police task force of Indonesia managed to release them and drive away the hostage takers on Nov 17.

            The indigenous people from the villages of Banti, Kimbeli, and Opitawak were evacuated to Timika to receive education and health services along with proper food supplies, which they had been deprived of during the hostage-taking incident.

         They were transported aboard 11 buses of the US copper and gold mining company PT Freeport Indonesia and tightly guarded by the military and police personnel.

            They are temporarily accommodated in the Eme Neme Yauware Building in Timika, according to Senior Commissioner A. M. Kamal, spokesman of the Papua Provincial Police.  
    The integrated task force has coordinated with PT Freeport and the Mimika District Administration regarding accommodation and facilities for the evacuees while staying in Timika.

        The migrant workers, who were illegal miners, were returned to their hometowns mostly in Java and urged to not return to Tembagapura again.

        Inspector General Boy Rafli Amar, head of the Papua Provincial Police, had earlier explained that the Banti tribal chief and religious leaders had urged the task force to evacuate hundreds of residents of their village to Timika, so that they could receive medical and education services as well as daily food supply.

         Besides, the situation is not fully safe because members of the criminal group have intensified attacks against security personnel and employees of PT Freeport and its sub-contractors in Mimika lately. 
    At least two police officers were shot dead and several other people, comprising of security men and civilians, were injured by the criminal group in Mimika during several terror incidents recently. 
   Teachers and paramedics had left the kampongs amidst intimidation by the criminal group.

        The police have identified 21 members of the armed group that are believed to have conducted the hostage-taking act.

         General Tito Karnavian, Indonesia's Police Chief, had earlier said that the joint task force, comprising of police and military officers, would do its utmost to use persuasive steps in dealing with the hostage takers in Mimika, but firm action would be taken as a last resort if it failed to do so.

        Inspector General Boy Rafli Amar, chief of the Papua Provincial Police, had described the hostage-taking incident as a violation of human rights because the villagers had been intimidated, held at gun point and deprived from education and medical services.

         Some 150 babies and infants were facing food shortage because their mothers could no longer breastfeed them. Some villagers had fallen ill as food stock was depleting.

        Since late October 2017, Waa-Banti Hospital, run by Amungme and Kamoro Community Development Institution, has ceased operations.

        Doctors, nurses, and other paramedics of the Waa-Banti Hospital had earlier been moved to safer area following a gun shooting incident committed by the group, targeting the hospital's ambulance.

        The hostage-takers had allowed just two persons to leave the village, namely a pregnant woman who was about to deliver a baby, and a 51-year-old traditional miner from Blitar, East Java, who was seriously ill.

        Meanwhile, Frits Ramandey, head of the Papua human rights office (Komnas HAM), recently said that the several recent incidents of fatal shootings targeting police officers were criminal actions.

        "The Komnas HAM expresses its condolences over the demise of Police Officer Firman. What happened to the late Firman is a tragedy and crime, so law must be enforced," he affirmed.

        Chief Brigadier Firman was shot dead during a shootout with members of the armed criminal group at Mile 69 in Tembagapura on Nov 15, 2017. ***4***
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(T.F001/A/BESSR/F. Assegaf) 21-11-2017